UK partnering with India on new tech assistance programme

UK government is starting a new programme of providing technical assistance in partnership with the Indian government.

KOLKATA: To boost private sector development and work on areas like climate change, poverty alleviation, the UK government is starting a new programme of providing technical assistance in partnership with the Indian government.

"Both the governments jointly decided to end the grant-in-aid program under the DFID. From the beginning of this year it has stopped. But, now we are transitioning it into a new program of technical assistance and support for private sector development," Andrew Soper, Minister Counsellor (Political and Press) of the British High Commission, Delhi, told PTI during a visit to the city.

DFID or the Department for International Development of the UK government had been giving financial aid to India for many years.

Soper said under the technical assistance programme, the UK would work together with both government and civil society on areas like climate change, clean energy and other sustainability issues, poverty alleviation, healthcare, education, etc.

"This will become more of a partnership now. Earlier it was different. Besides this, the government will also provide 'returnable capital' for a range of private sector enterprises," he said.

"We will be investing small amounts of money in start-ups, individual projects and small companies to help them," Soper said.

In the field of education, they were partnering with Indian universities under the national GIAN (Global Initiative of Academic Networks) programme, which aims to bring foreign faculty members to teach in India.

Rob Lynes, Country Director, British Council, India, said this year around a hundred faculty from UK were coming to India to teach short or semester-long courses.

"Our universities are encouraging teachers to go to India," he said adding, GIAN has the potential to culminate into joint research projects.